Iran officially announces: the country's president Raisi and the foreign minister were killed in the helicopter crash
After about 14 hours of searching,
the Red Crescent announced that its forces had located the helicopter of Ibrahim Raisi and Hussein Amir Abdullahian, which crashed yesterday on the way back from Azerbaijan. An Iranian source told Reuters: "The aircraft was completely burned." This is the expected replacement for the president of Iran, and this is the date of the elections
After about 16 hours of searching
the crash of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian, Tehran officially announced this morning (Monday) that the two were killed in the incident. The Red Crescent announced tonight, after about 14 hours of searching, that it had located the remains of the helicopter. An Iranian official told Reuters news agency after the announcement of the helicopter's location that "the aircraft was completely burned, the chances are low that Raisi will be found alive. It seems that all the passengers are dead."
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Earlier, additional delegations joined the search efforts :
in difficult weather conditions. "We are thoroughly scanning every centimeter of the crash area," said one of Iran's army commanders before locating the helicopter, "there are very cold, rainy and foggy weather conditions here. The rain is gradually turning into snow." According to a report by the Iranian state news agency IRNA, the teams conducted the searches throughout the night on steep slopes on a mountainside, with a blizzard raging in the background.
Russia, Turkey and Qatar, all countries with close relations with Tehran, offered the Islamic Republic assistance,
joined the search efforts and sent rescue and rescue teams to the crash site. "At Tehran's request, rescue forces from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations will assist in the search for the helicopter," Moscow announced on Telegram. "The team is traveling towards Tabriz, and includes 47 specialists with the necessary equipment, off-road vehicles and a BO-105 helicopter."
Turkey said that it sent a drone, a helicopter, vehicles and a rescue team, after a request from the Iranian authorities. The Turkish news agency "Anadolu" reported that the drone detected a heat source that is suspected to be part of the destroyed helicopter. The agency added that the landmarks of the site were shared with the Iranian authorities, and that the Turkish Ministry of Defense also assigned a helicopter equipped with night vision to participate in the search. At the same time, the European Union offered to help with emergency satellite mapping technology.
Saudi Arabia also joined the list of countries expressing sympathy with Iran , which announced that it is following with "great concern" the reports of the crash. Riyadh expressed support for Tehran and willingness to help it in any way possible.
Iran and the world were already wondering yesterday what the future holds for the political system of the Islamic Republic if it turns out that Raisi was indeed killed. Although the supreme leader Ali Khamenei has the final say in matters of state management, the president - who is elected to the position only if he is liked by Khamenei and the heads of the regime - is reserved considerable powers, especially in internal matters.
According to Article 131 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, if a president dies while performing his duties - his first deputy takes his place, after he receives approval for this from the supreme leader. After that, a council consisting of the first vice president, the speaker of the parliament and the head of the judiciary needs to organize new presidential elections to be held within 50 days at the most. Raisi was elected president of Iran in 2021, which means that the next presidential election was supposed to be held next year.
In the meantime,
the White House said last night that US President Joe Biden had been updated on the incident in Iran, and the US State Department announced that it was closely monitoring the reports coming from there. No evidence of "hostile activity" that caused the crash of the helicopter Raisi was in. "It was very bad weather, foggy, in the northwest of Iran, where the helicopter crashed. The incident looks like an accident, but it is still being investigated," Schumer noted.
Last night, the state media in Iran reported that a signal was received from the helicopter that crashed yesterday afternoon in the north of the country, on the way back from Azerbaijan. According to the reports, a signal was also received from a cell phone of one of the crew members who were in the helicopter. As mentioned, the report came after long hours in which the rescue teams had difficulty locating the helicopter, due to the rain, fog and winds in the area.
Earlier last night, an Iranian official confirmed to the Reuters news agency that there is a fear for the lives of Raisi, Abdullahian and the other passengers of the helicopter, and that the information coming from the field is "very worrying". Raisi's administrative assistant, Mohsen Mansuri, later revealed that the authorities managed to make contact several times with one of the helicopter's passengers and a member of his crew, but did not clarify with whom exactly this contact was made and when.
The helicopter incident happened near Julfa, a city located near the border with Azerbaijan, about 600 kilometers northwest of Tehran. Raisi visited Azerbaijan yesterday morning for the purpose of inaugurating a dam together with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, with the strained relations between the two countries in the background, partly due to Azerbaijan's close ties with Israel. The air incident probably happened on his way back from there.
